


Two foundlings

by skydalorian



Series: Two foundlings [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Courtship, Engagement, Fluff, Found Family, Happy Ending, M/M, Mutual Pining, Slow Burn, din is missing his son, fight with the empire, post episode 16, the jedi academy, the sith vs the jedi, three original characters appear, training for the duel with bo-katan, two dads raising a child together
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-25
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-18 02:46:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28985073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skydalorian/pseuds/skydalorian
Summary: "One would think that the pain would eventually start to fade away - but it seemed to only grow stronger."It's been a tough couple of weeks for the Mandalorian. Everything has felt hollow and empty since his and Grogu's ways parted. It seems like he can't pull himself together - until he arrives on Tatooine and discovers some clues about the mysterious Jedi Knight.
Relationships: Boba Fett/Cobb Vanth, Din Djarin/Luke Skywalker
Series: Two foundlings [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2126094
Comments: 16
Kudos: 129





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is the (chronological) first chapter of the fanfic. I focused on exposition here but I promise more action next time! (and I promise Luke will appear in the next one too - the 2nd chapter will hopefully be up somewhere around mid-February).
> 
> Also I had spent a ridiculous amount of time on studying the map of Tatooine, researching the types of speeder bikes in the SW universe and their speed and reading about Luke's and Biggs' old farmhouses layouts while writing this chapter. And yes I ended up using none of it but at least now I know way too much about the history of Anchorhead.
> 
> Disclaimer: I use the canon very liberally but I do my best to make it tie up nicely! I will attempt to fix some things I think the movies got wrong - mostly small details.

The starship had been wading through space for quite some time before sudden noises coming from the console woke the Mandalorian up. He must have fallen asleep after pulling out of hyperspace and setting the course. Those unexpected faints started to happen more and more frequently to him during the last few weeks. 

Din tried tapping the red-glaring buttons in front of him and even though the whole act looked more like a muscle memory thing than a conscious decision, it worked. The beeping stopped and the man was once again surrounded by absolute silence. He sighed and rubbed his eyes because he felt he wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep now anyway.

A brown dot appeared on the horizon and slowly started getting bigger, which Din noticed despite still being half-asleep. He frowned and checked the panel just to be sure - he was, in fact, approaching Tatooine. _Already?_ , he thought. _How long was I out?_ Earlier he had decided to make the last few hours of his trip out of hyperspace. There was no hurry and he wasn’t really sure he even wanted to return to this planet. But what else was there for him to do? 

After his and Bo-Katan’s ways parted he tried going back to being a bounty hunter, which occupied him for some time. He also took up some smaller and less official jobs, whatever would get him the money. He stole, he killed, even looked for some missing persons. That enabled him to save enough credits to buy a new ship off someone in the Corellian system. But all of that felt hollow and pointless. Din couldn’t shake off the feeling of unrealness. The Mandalorian had never felt anything similar to this before - maybe when he was a kid, right after he became a foundling. But now he couldn’t recognize himself. 

The thought of having to duel with the leader of the Clan Kryze was paralysing to Din. It felt too absurd to be real - and yet, he was meant to meet with her again to determine the new ruler of the Mandalore. The necessity of their future meeting overwhelmed him so much he didn’t even want to recognize it. Every time even the faintest notion of the duel came up in his head, he sought a distraction. The man thought there was no point in mulling over it, since he still had got a lot of time before it would happen. In reality, he was retreating. 

Tatooine was taking a more familiar shape in front of Din’s eyes and so he decided it was time to turn off the autopilot. He put his helmet back on and once again stared at his destination. For a split second there was a spark of hope in his heart. He thought that perhaps the company of his old friends would get him back on track. There was also something else drawing him to the planet, but he couldn’t tell what exactly that thing was.

The ship increased in speed as soon as it entered the planet’s atmosphere. Turbulence in this particular light freighter model pestered Din with every landing and this time was no exception. He fastened his seatbelt and started speaking before he fully turned his head around:

“Hold on, Kid. It’s gonna get bu-” he stopped as soon as he saw the empty seat on his right side. The Mandalorian’s eyes got hung up for a solid minute before the aggressive beeping of the console made him snap out of it. 

He felt a tightness in his chest as if something was grasping at his insides. He let out a disappointed sigh. Din realized it wasn’t the first time he did something like that. 

  
  
  


***

  
  


The sight of a VCX-100 surprised Peli Motto so much that she left her booth before Din even got the chance to land. She watched as the ship parked in the hangar and all the engines progressively got shut down. All the fumes coming out of it couldn’t make the distinct silhouette of the Mandalorian unrecognizable to Peli. Seeing him coming out of anything other than his Razorcrest felt unnatural to her.

“I thought you’d never get rid of that piece of junk!” she yelled as he was still walking out of the freighter. 

“I didn’t exactly… get rid of it.” Din responded when he got closer to her. The metallic voice coming from under his helmet sounded somber even though he felt genuine happiness when he saw Peli. 

The woman tilted her head and looked at him with a confused face. 

“Let’s just say it’s a long story.” he offered. 

“Well, if you say so…” she shrugged her shoulders. “Do you need any work done on this one?” 

“Actually, yes. The turbulence gets too intense when I enter the atmosphere. The Corellian guy told me it’s just in this particular ship so I guess it’s fixable.” he said and started taking out some credits out of his pocket, but Peli stopped him midway.

“No need for that if you’re gonna let me take care of that sweet baby of yours! I missed that little guy.” she said excitedly and started looking behind Din with the hope to see the Child. Sadly, she found nothing.

“You’re not gonna tell me that you gave him away too?” she asked seriously as she frowned at the Mandalorian.

Din sighed. 

“I guess that’s a long story too.” he replied. For some puzzling reason he hoped that Peli would grasp onto that and ask to hear all about it. Din desperately needed to tell someone and to be heard. Those endless weeks spent in silence and without anyone familiar around him had taken their toll on him. 

She understood the gravity of the situation just by picking up on the Mandalorian’s tone. It felt emptier than the one she was used to hearing. His hunched over back only added to his voice. 

“Well, I’m in no hurry. And you sound like you need a drink. To be frank, I will be needing one too.” she tried saying it in an uplifting manner but she knew it wouldn’t do much for Din, who had never seemed more resigned than now. 

Motto pointed at the door and let the man follow her. 

  
  
  


***

  
  
  


“I know next to nothing about him. I met him once and I gave him… the Kid.” with that, Din finished telling his story to Peli. 

He had been talking for so long it made him thirsty. He realized he had probably never said so many words at once, which felt weird. As soon as that feeling came upon him, he grabbed the glass from the table and started sipping through a straw, which he thought was quite embarrassing. But surprisingly no one was really looking at him - one might think that they were in the wrong Mos Eisley Cantina. Yet, on that particular day no one paid attention to the shiny Mandalorian. He guessed that was caused by Peli’s reputation and history with winning over everyone around here. 

Din thought about what he had said to the woman as the blue liquid burned his throat. He had described to her pretty much everything that had happened to him since they last met. There wasn’t a problem with remembering it all because he had spent the last weeks going through every detail over and over again in his head. He couldn’t stop thinking about his meeting with Ahsoka, who suggested that Grogu would have to get rid of his attachment to Din in order to be properly trained. He couldn’t get the image of the Jedi dressed in all black taking the Kid away from him either. And every time he relived those scenes he experienced the same, excruciating aching. One would think that the pain would eventually start to fade away - but it seemed to only grow stronger. 

Peli, sitting across from him, was absorbing every one of his words very carefully. She didn’t interrupt him, which even she deemed as unusual. The concerned look on her face didn’t vanish even after the Mandalorian stopped talking. She only noticed that he was done summarizing the events after a minute of silence. Motto moved a little bit in her seat and focused her eyes on the glass on the table. She took a generous sip out of it before she decided to speak. 

“You said you don’t know anything about him,” she inquired about the Jedi “well, do you at least trust him?”

Din tightened the grip on the glass he was holding. Despite thinking about this exact thing for weeks now, he still didn’t know how to answer at first. He tried to gather his thoughts.

“I… do.” he sounded unsure. “His task is to train Grogu - and I doubt he will fail in that.”

The only thing that had been keeping him relatively sane was the memory of the Jedi Knight destroying the Dark Troopers without breaking a sweat - and he hung onto that whenever he had second thoughts about letting him take the Kid. Din knew he could never protect him as efficiently. And yet, he still happened to have those thoughts.

“But you doubt he will be a father to him.” Peli felt that it should be stated, even though the Mandalorian chose to leave it unsaid.

Those words made Din look up at Motto for a second, but he went back to staring at his hands pretty quickly. He didn’t try to deny her words - he had given up trying to pretend like he didn’t grow attached to the Child a long time ago. 

“Maybe a Jedi master is what the Kid needs more.” he said as if he was trying to square this idea with himself. 

Peli watched Mando as he once again took a sip and looked down. Even though he was in his helmet, he still tried to avoid any eye contact. For the first time the woman truly saw him as someone able to be vulnerable, left alone, sad. Human. 

“You don’t seem to believe yourself.” she tried saying as thoughtfully as she could. 

Din only replied after a minute:

“I wouldn’t give him away if I didn’t believe it.” 

They both knew it wasn’t true but neither one wanted to address it. Peli just tilted her head as if she wanted to riposte with “oh, really?”. But she knew that wasn’t a good moment to get sarcastic with the Mandalorian.

Instead she dropped that topic. 

“You know, you could stay on Tatooine for some time.” she suggested, mainly because she was sure he would take off with his ship as soon as she’d finish the repairs.

Din immediately raised his head at those words.

“You’ve got some job?” he asked.

Peli chuckled in response. Of course that was the Mandalorian’s first thought.

“I meant it in a ‘stay here for a while and rest’ kind of way.” she replied. “You seem exhausted. Just take a few weeks off of whatever it is that you do right now.” her tone started to sound less serious now. 

The shiny helmet in front of her lowered once again and then she heard a resigned sigh. 

“I can’t… just stay. I’m probably wanted by hundreds of people after what happened in Gideon’s ship.” he said.

Din was right, but it’s not like he cared about it very much. He had spent weeks carelessly hanging around numerous different planets - which was extremely irresponsible, considering what he had come into possession of. 

Peli knew he was just looking for an excuse to be left alone again - even though that was just about the last thing he should do at that moment. 

“Come on. You look and sound terrible. You need to sleep, you’ve not been taking care of yourself since the Jedi took the Kid.” she said, maybe a bit too hurriedly. But she felt she couldn’t have just left it implied. 

These words made his heart drop. Despite admitting before himself to holding the Kid dear, he still didn’t like anyone else explicitly pointing that out. And the sole mention of the Jedi Knight made him kind of angry, but mostly just sad.

He noticed the direction in which their conversation was heading and he felt he had to retreat:

“I also…” he cleared his throat, “got to learn his name later. My friend, who served as a dropper, told me he was a pretty big figure in the Rebellion. She only knew his last name - Skywalker.” he was sure Peli wouldn’t recognize it. Even with all of her knowledge about everyone living on Tatooine, what were the chances the Jedi set his foot on this planet?

The woman frowned at the sound of that name as if it rang a bell. Din was glad he had his helmet on and no one could see the shock on his face at that moment. He watched as Peli was visibly searching in the deepest corners of her mind for any information on the Jedi.

“Skywalker, Skywalker…” she murmured under her nose, “I’m not sure this is what you should be searching for, but there was a small family with that name many years ago. I’m afraid I can’t really tell you much more than that. But I’ve also got this faint hunch about a younger fella named Skywalker.” she sounded very unsure of her words, but Din didn’t pay much attention to it. The fact that she was able to tell him anything that could lead him to any information about the Jedi Knight was in itself very surprising. 

The Mandalorian sat up straight in his seat upon hearing all that.

“Do you know where I should search for him?” he asked with a sense of hope in his voice. 

“I can’t tell you the exact coordinates, but I think you want to check out those farms located in the south direction from here.” she replied.

Din sat motionlessly for a solid minute while he was deciding on his next move. He felt that the information provided by Peli was enough to go on - or at least he wanted it to be enough. Desperation took the best of him and he suddenly stood up.

“I’m going there.” he stated firmly. Then he noticed a sudden feeling of clarity - for the first time in weeks he felt sure about anything. As if something was pulling him towards the farms.

Motto chuckled at his rushed decision, but not in a mean way. She was glad to see the Mandalorian behaving like his stubborn self once again. She finished her drink with one quick swig and stood up from her seat too.

“I still think that you need a good night's sleep before you go anywhere, but I see you’ve made up your mind.” she said as she grabbed her jacket and started to dig for some change in its pockets. “Let’s go get you a speeder.” she said as she tossed a coin to the bartender. 

They were both leaving the Cantina when Din noticed some old loner in the corner, giving him an eye. He assumed the guy must have just been looking at the beskar armour as it had happened many times before. Mando decided to follow Peli without stopping. 

  
  


***

  
  
  


The day was nearing its end, but the suns shining down on Tatooine were as merciless as ever. Their rays were accompanying Din on his route from Mos Eisley, warming up his armour to red. All the black clothes underneath the beskar didn’t help the case either. 

The desert’s heat, dry air and sand should have made the Mandalorian uncomfortable at the least. But his newly found lead on the Jedi had prevented that from happening - instead, he was just focused on finding the farmhouse mentioned by Peli. 

The speeder bike given to him by the woman was a bit run-down, but it did its part while going over dunes. Din wasn’t able to ride as fast as he wanted to, however the drive was going smoothly. Even though he had not been to this part of the planet before, he knew the way. He was following a well-trodden path - which got his hopes up, again. He thought that he would have to find someone at the farms if that road was still used often. 

It wasn’t long until the Mandalorian saw some kind of an old city up ahead on the horizon. As he got closer it started to look more and more deteriorated - the buildings were similar to the ones in Mos Eisley, but these were in a much worse state. The whole place looked like it should have been abandoned a long time ago, and yet Din was greeted by some unwelcoming faces as he slowly drove past the town. He decided not to stop there. He sped up as he was leaving some kind of a power station behind him.

The sight of that odd city made Din tame his previous enthusiasm. He had forgotten he was still on Tatooine and needed to keep his eyes open. He was now taking a right and heading west. 

It only took a couple of minutes for the Mandalorian to reach his destination. He stopped the bike as he arrived at the farmhouse. 

Din took a look around him and only after spotting nobody he stepped off the speeder. The few buildings in front of him didn’t look that promising - they seemed to be in the same condition as those in the city he drove past. The Mandalorian thought the estate probably used to be owned by someone quite rich, judging by the size of the place. 

The farm looked abandoned, but he decided to take a better look nevertheless. He went past a tower and entered under one of several impressive arches - the other ones were partly demolished and their debris was laying in the sand. All around Din were palm trees, which he deemed as unusual for this planet. 

He noticed a door to his right and went to check it. After making sure that it was locked he decided he didn’t really want to barge in. He somehow felt he wouldn’t find anything interesting there anyway. 

Din took one last stroll around the moisture farm and was left feeling disappointed by what he had seen so far. The Mandalorian sighed loudly as he was getting back on his speeder bike. He hadn’t fully given up yet, he just assumed that that must have been the wrong place. He decided to keep looking.

The next farm he encountered was much smaller and he would have gone right past it if it hadn’t been for a deteriorated white dome standing out from the dirt around it. Instead he stopped and observed the whole place. He looked around, but only saw a few moisture vaporators nearby. _This one’s abandoned too_ , he thought. The thought lingered for a moment before he decided to get off his bike.

As soon as Din set his foot on the ground he knew this was no ordinary place. A sudden feeling of sadness washed over him. It was much stronger than what he had been experiencing himself for some time now - the intensity of sorrow he was feeling now almost knocked him off his feet. 

The Mandalorian bent down with hands on his knees and breathed with difficulty. He no longer knew if it was caused by Tatooine’s dry air or all of the emotions attacking him now. Din was gasping for air and after a few seconds he managed to control his breathing. A breath, _screams_ , another breath, _blood_ , and one more, _death_. He couldn’t exactly see what had happened here but he felt all the pain spilt over these grounds.

It took him more than a minute to be able to stand up straight. He once again looked at the farmhouse but there was still nothing interesting to be seen there. But something was telling him to get closer. Despite the shock he just experienced he decided to go near the edge that was situated on the right side of the dome. In that moment he was unable to take a reasonable look at the whole situation and a faint instinct got the best of him. 

Every step he took felt much more exhausting than the previous one. The emotional torment manifested in physical pain, so much of it. Din was grunting heavily as he limped through the sand, as if he had just finished a fight with a mudhorn. His walk was unsteady and interrupted by short pauses he took. Finally he got to the edge of a depression in the ground. The relief he felt as he took a seat on it was enormous.

The odd atmosphere of this place was still accompanying the Mandalorian, but the pain was kind of wearing off. Din no longer felt the need to cringe his face and so he released the tension, from head to toe. He was now able to soberly examine his surroundings. Looking down he saw some farm machinery and mostly just rubbish, all covered in sand. There were also underground tunnels, probably linking different rooms with the main yard. It was hard to notice anything else really - the thick layers of dirt hid most of the farm.

The Mandalorian felt completely defeated. He found absolutely nothing useful. No one alive, either. No further clues on the Jedi Knight. Din didn’t think that someone like him would live in a place like this. Tatooine is for the poor, the weak and for the scum. How could anyone as powerful as the Skywalker guy be linked to here? 

And yet, how could all the suffering that those grounds were exuding be explained? Mando knew for sure that this wasn’t just a random farm. It couldn’t be. He had never experienced anything similar to this before. _It must be the Force_ , he thought, even though he knew next to nothing about it. But it would connect the Jedi to this strange site - and Din really needed them to be connected. The thought of being on the right track sparked a hope in his heart again. 

Just as he felt the burning inside of him, the rays of the setting suns hit his helmet. He tried shielding his eyes with his hand. The bright light blinded him for a few seconds but it also brought a hint of bliss upon him. That unexpected notion made him put his hand down.

The view he saw was just mesmerizing. Just a little bit over the horizon were two fiery circles, lazily going down. Din couldn’t see all the colours accurately because of the black visor of his helmet. He felt the need to take it off. The motions of his hands looked almost automatic - as if the Mandalorian wasn’t really noticing his actions. 

Pinks and oranges painting the sky, beams of sunshine making the sand shine like gold, the red sun complementing the white one - Din’s eyes were absorbing it all now. The edges of his mouth turned upwards, his head tilted and every one of his wrinkles filled with the warm light. He observed the binary sunset spellbound. He thought it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen - and he dwelled on that sentence for a while. It didn’t happen often that the man admitted to having this kind of thoughts. But now he was alone and so he let himself exist without all those things always holding him back. Just for a moment.

Din noticed that the physical pain had completely vanished and he could no longer feel the emotional one either. He frowned at that realization because no probable explanation for it crossed his mind.

The two suns were now almost completely hidden behind the horizon and the Mandalorian knew it was time to get going. Since it was a desert after all, the warm sand would turn stone cold in a blink of an eye and he didn’t want to just sit there, freezing. 

He put his helmet back on, then got up without any trouble and started walking towards his speeder bike. After getting on it he spent a minute thinking about something intensely. Then, instead of going back the way he first came, he drove off northwest.   
  



	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Soon he would be reunited with his old pal and possibly gain some more information on the Jedi, which he was looking forward to. But Din no longer hoped that meeting Cobb, or anyone for that matter, would soothe his soul to any extent. Some wounds go too deep."
> 
> Din's internal turmoil continues, as well as his search for the clues on the Jedi - all in vain, as a new enemy enters the game. Will he choose to keep running or finally give up?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Luke is finally in this one! And some action, baby!
> 
> This chapter wasn't supposed to be this long, yet here we are. Before my brain stops being fried and I can write the next one I will try to post a small dinluke one shot! 
> 
> While writing I researched all known words in Tusken, as well as all swear words in Star Wars and how cowboys used to swear - once again my brain is filled with new and super useful information. Also I really do be inventing words in Tusken as if I don't fear God. George Lucas don't @ me

The flames crackling near the Mandalorian’s head were dying down as he lay on his back, staring at the night sky. He decided to get up just as the sounds coming from the fireplace were about to stop completely. With a swift swing of his arm, he threw in a couple of logs and revived the fire. After mindlessly staring at the glimmering chunks of wood, he got back under his blanket.

The frayed rag Din pulled under his chin wasn’t the most thick or comfortable cover he’d seen, but at least it was  _ good enough to protect him from freezing to death _ , he thought. He was grateful to the two Tuskens travelling with him for lending him the piece of material. He bumped into them right after booking out of the farmhouse and he got to learn that they were heading the same direction as him. All three of them were voyaging together for more than twenty four hours now and their trip was nearing its end - the Mandalorian knew they would arrive in Mos Pelgo the next day.

Earlier that evening the Tuskens told Din about their business with the marshal - apparently Vanth wanted to trade stuff with them and learn the language while doing so. The Mandalorian guessed that defeating the krayt dragon had sown the seeds of trust. He was right - and a by-product of that event was a kind of friendship between sand people and the townsfolk that had sprung up recently. Even if the language barrier was sometimes too hard to overcome, both sides enjoyed haggling over weapons and drinking spotchka - and that was enough for them to cooperate.

Din’s companions used the word  _ Tarrak  _ to describe Cobb, which confused him as he had never heard it before. The Tusken must have noticed the slight tilt of his helmet. He first pointed at his friend and then at himself, “Tarrak,” he said. Then he directed his hand at Din and at himself again, “Tarrak”. The Mandalorian just signed  _ understood  _ in response.

Now the light coming from all the stars glimmering in the sky was being reflected by Din’s helmet. His eyes were fixed on the white dots, even though he knew he should have been resting. But as soon as his head hit the ground he knew it would be another sleepless night. The main reason for it wasn’t the cold, although it did its part in preventing him from falling asleep, but it was the man’s thoughts, constantly buzzing and only getting more and more intrusive. 

The more time passed since he left the farm the less sure he felt of what had transpired there. He didn’t know if all those emotions that he was weighed down by had been really caused by that place or if he had just hallucinated them from the exhaustion. The thought of losing his sanity scared him gravely - but then again, he didn’t think there was much left of it anyway. 

The only other explanation for all that was the Force, which was still a difficult concept for Din to grasp. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe it was real, he just didn’t know how it worked. He saw Grogu lift a mudhorn and make the ball float, but other than that he had no idea what it could do. Earlier he had assumed it was the Force that had made him see some blurry parts of the history of that farm but now that feeling was fading away and he was beginning to think it was just his desperation that had blinded him.

The Mandalorian was almost dead with fatigue, which manifested in every part of his body aching as well as in the inability to control his thoughts. They were getting more and more acute now. He felt like his childish need for any clues on the Jedi clouded his outlook - he probably just imagined the whole thing at the moisture farm.  _ How could I be so stupid? _

That thought itched him so badly he immediately tried to shake it off and turned to his side. His eyes were squeezed shut and he was clenching his teeth. He only noticed it after a minute and he released the tension. 

Din managed to drive away all those thoughts and clear his head for a moment. He was lying motionlessly as he slowly started to drift off. 

He was now standing in a long hall inside a building he did not recognize. It was almost completely dark, even though the faint moonlight was trying to get inside through the small windows on Din’s left side. The marble around him exuded cold similar to that he felt in the desert. He looked around as he tried warming up his hands. At the end of the hallway were two figures standing next to each other. They were almost blending in with the background because of their dark robes, but the Mandalorian noticed them due to the echo of their conversation. 

It was impossible to distinguish any words from where Din was standing, so he started walking towards the two. Every footstep echoed in the dim hallway and it seemed like Din would draw attention to himself any moment now. To his surprise, the people behaved like they heard nothing. He thought he would get a better look at their faces once he got closer, but the hoods casted a shadow on them. Only their moving mouths were visible, as well as their gesturing hands. They were arguing about something.

“You cannot train him like that. We both know it’s gonna end badly,” he finally heard a distinct voice that belonged to a woman. It was still very quiet, but he managed to understand all the words. She sounded kind of morphed and so he could not put a finger on who it was.

The other person replied immediately:

“I know what makes you say that, but it’s not right... He’s all the kid has,” this time it was a man speaking. He came off as rash, which took his companion aback. The Mandalorian was hit by those words too, but for a different reason. He started getting an idea about what exactly they were talking about.

A few seconds passed before the woman spoke again:

“Choosing this path comes with consequences. He’s got to forget about him,” she stated coldly and hid her hands in her robe. 

Din thought the man would double down on his argument and get more firm with her, or rather, he just really wanted him to do that. Disappointingly, he only let out a resigned sigh. He turned away from the woman. It was at that moment he noticed the Mandalorian’s face standing out in the darkness. The hood was still covering his face, but Din could feel his piercing stare. Soon the woman turned her head too and they were both looking at him now. 

No one said anything or dared to move, but the Mandalorian knew he wasn’t supposed to be there. And he sure should not have been listening to their argument. 

He started nervously retreating but the echo of his steps was unbearable.  _ This is wrong, _ he thought to himself but it seemed like the sound of it bounced off the walls too. The acute feeling of uneasiness only grew bigger and bigger. 

Something in the Mandalorian broke when he noticed that despite backing off, the distance between him and the two figures only kept closing. He gasped and decided to change the strategy. He turned around and started running, but now the hallway started to lengthen right in front of his eyes. 

Din’s heartbeat was so fast and intense he could feel it pulsing in his whole body when he jolted awake. It took him a couple of seconds to realize what had just happened, but he came to his senses as soon as he heard the Tuskens’ snoring nearby. 

Realizing that he was just dreaming didn’t console him - on the contrary, he felt as uneasy as he did in the nightmare. His heavy breathing and sweaty clothes made him feel so embarrassed, even if no one besides him knew about it. But the thing that stung him the most was that he felt genuine fear. Which doesn’t happen often.

More than that, he knew exactly what made him so terrified. Now, breathing in the cold night air and clearing his head, he was able to recognize the woman from his dream. 

He squeezed his eyes again in an attempt to brush these thoughts off. It sort of worked and a feeling of weariness took their place. The man put his head back on his makeshift pillow and once again covered himself with the blanket. 

He dedicated the last few seconds of being conscious to the next day’s travel. Soon he would be reunited with his old pal and possibly gain some more information on the Jedi, which he was looking forward to. But Din no longer hoped that meeting Cobb, or anyone for that matter, would soothe his soul to any extent. Some wounds go too deep. 

Sleep came upon him again, this time there were no nightmares.

  
  
  
  


***

  
  
  


Only judging by the loud sounds of chittering, laughing and shouting with joy coming from the cantina, one would think that yet another Death Star had just been blown up. But the Empire was long gone, at least officially, so Din was a little confused as to what the reason for this big celebration was. His disorientation grew when he set his foot inside and looked around only to see that the cantina was filled with Tuskens sitting next to the townspeople. Even though he knew about their current peaceful relations, he never really expected to see those two groups partying together.

He continued to look around and he tilted his head as soon as he noticed someone wearing a too familiar mandalorian armour, sitting in the corner of the room. Din’s arrival with the Tuskens caught the man’s attention too - he was now staring at them and nodding his head to greet them. His silver-haired companion, until now busy with whispering something to his ear, turned his head into the same direction. A warm smile lifted from the corners of his mouth.

The marshal immediately got up from his seat and started walking up to the newcomers.

“Old friend,” he said as he shook Din’s hand.

“Good to see you again,” he offered in response. He really meant that.

Then Cobb went on to welcome the other two guests. He smiled at them and tried signing, as well as saying:

“Aargh, tarrak.” 

He made no mistakes, which surprised Din. He guessed it was quite important for the marshal to be on good terms with Sand People since the last time they saw each other he didn’t know a word in tusken. The word  _ tarrak  _ also drew his attention.

The travellers replied with the same and signed something along the lines of  _ we’ve got the information for the boss _ . Cobb signed a simple  _ go  _ and pointed his finger at Fett who was now conversing with Fennec, sitting at his side. The Tuskens nodded their heads at Din and went off to talk with  _ the boss _ .

Din must have looked confused even with the helmet on because the marshal shrugged his shoulders and pointed outside with his head.

“I feel like we’ve got some catching up to do,” he said and didn’t wait for an answer before he left the cantina.

Din followed his steps outside and joined him in sitting on some small transporter parked near the cantina. The party was still audible there but at least they were able to talk normally now. 

“Didn’t expect Mos Pelgo to have nightclubs now,” Din spoke in a lighthearted tone, which Cobb picked up on and chuckled. Finally talking to someone familiar and with whom he could joke around made the Mandalorian feel less tense. And he really needed to unwind after spending the last few days on losing his sanity.

“A lot of things have changed since your last time here,” he replied. 

Din started talking before he could add anything.

“Yeah, I guessed that when I saw Boba Fett sitting in your cantina and doing business with the Tuskens as if it was normal around here,” he said and looked at the man. The face he was making under the helmet was a mix of suspicion and tease.

“I guess it is now. We all started a kind of… cooperation, I’d say.” A smirk appeared on Cobb’s face, which didn’t go unnoticed by his companion. 

“A ‘cooperation’?” Din scoffed.

Cobb crossed his arms and fixed his eyes on his shoes.

“Well, let’s say a friendship has developed between me and Fett. It wasn’t all that friendly at the beginning, you know, the whole armour thing…” he spoke kind of shyly, which was unusual for him, “but we’re on  _ really  _ good terms now. And the Sand People, besides trading with us, do business with him.”

“Boba doesn’t strike me as the forgiving type,” the Mandalorian said. He was right, it was rather strange that the man who was ready to kill the Child just to get his armour back would forgive Cobb, who had the audacity to wear it. 

“Yeah, you’re right,” Vanth was now smiling, “let’s say I’m good at raising in people’s favour,” he looked up at the man with a playful grin.

His tone made Din suddenly get the hint. It felt wrong to interrogate the marshal about his private stuff any longer.

“The business the Tuskens do with Boba has something to do with him being Tatooine’s criminal mastermind now?”

“Dang, ‘criminal mastermind’?” he mocked the man’s serious tone. “Don’t believe everything you hear, Mando. He’s just eliminated some Empire-loving Twi’lek and is building a guild of his own,” Cobb explained.

“A guild? I stand corrected then. Turns out that the Outer Rim inhabitants aren’t the most trustworthy,” he joked.

“They really aren’t,” Cobb replied and laughed again, “you know, you should talk to him about it. He’ll have some job for you.”

“Maybe I will. But I’m looking for something now,” he paused for a moment, “for someone, rather.”

“The little one?” the man asked, which he had been wanting to do ever since Din arrived and he saw no green ears sticking out of his pouch.

“Not him. I want to know more about the person who took him,” the Mandalorian started explaining but he retracted immediately, “well, did Boba tell you about us taking the Kid away from the Imps?”

“He only told me about the part of the story that he was involved in. But Fennec mentioned you were saved by someone really powerful that day.”

_ Someone really powerful _ didn’t do justice the images that were now filling Din’s head. It all started coming back to him now, along with the feeling of pure shock that the Jedi’s entrance filled him with back on the ship.

“Yeah you could say that about him… we would be all dead if it wasn’t for him. He destroyed a whole legion of the Imperial killer droids without breaking a sweat.”

“That sounds… impressive, to say the least. How did he know you were there?” Cobb asked.

“Grogu, the Child, reached out to him through the Force. He must have picked up his signal.”

“Back on the Seeing Stone?”

Din looked at him curiously.

“Oh, Boba told me about your first meeting with him,” the man explained, “so it is real. The Force, I mean,” he said it with a straight face but it sounded more like a joke.

“About that I have no doubts anymore. There’s no other explanation for the Jedi’s fighting abilities. I’ve never seen anything like it. No bounty hunter I know is as good as him. Dank Farrik, not even a Mandalorian,” he shook his head in disbelief, “I bet he would have taken the krayt dragon all by himself and not even get a bruise.”

“Well, at least you know the Kid will be safe with him.”

Din only murmured in response. Cobb understood that it might have sounded wrong.

“You know what I mean.”

“I know,” the Mandalorian didn’t sound offended, “I wouldn’t have given him away if I didn’t know that.”

The marshal nodded his head in agreement. Notably the atmosphere got pretty tense and both men could feel it - but neither of them knew what would be the right way to lighten the mood. There was a sense of friendly connection between them now but they were still mere colleagues who knew next to nothing about each other. 

So after a moment of silence Cobb decided to retract.

“You’re looking for something on the Jedi,” he started talking, “well, have you found anything?”

“I’m not sure, really. My friend from Mos Eisley only told me about a family with the same last name that used to live on Tatooine,” Din paused because he wasn’t sure if he wanted to tell the man about his trip to the farms. After all, he still wasn’t sure he didn’t imagine it all. But even the faintest chance that Cobb would be able to tell him anything useful prompted him to start talking again.

“I’ve visited an old moisture farm, it’s located south-east from here. Don’t know if what I saw there was real, but I think the Jedi used to live there.”

“A Jedi being a farmboy?” Cobb raised his eyebrows.

“I know how it sounds. It’s just… I saw some horrible things there. Not with my eyes. I felt them,” after saying this he regretted ever opening his mouth.

The marshal only hummed in response and lowered his head again. It seemed he was mulling over everything Din has told him about the strange Knight so far. Before meeting him and Boba, he had no encounters with even the topic of the Force and so he was a little bit hesitant about believing it all. But the Mandalorian sounded serious and it was enough for Cobb.

“It for sure doesn’t sound like your typical farm. But I’m afraid I can’t tell you anything about it or the Jedi guy,” he now spoke in a genuine tone too, “I think I know who you should ask, though.”

Din was relieved that he didn’t get accused of losing his mind - but that didn’t mean he stopped thinking that himself. 

He looked at his friend and only nodded his helmet in response. They both got up from the transporter and started walking towards the noisy cantina. 

  
  


***  
  


“Mando,” the woman spoke calmly, without revealing her genuine happiness caused by Din’s presence.

“Fennec,” he replied in the same tone.

“No bounties on my head this time, I hope?” she asked.

“No, just here to talk,” the Mandalorian said and took a seat next to her.

Meanwhile Cobb sat next to Boba and muttered a few words to him about the Tuskens. In response the man just shook his head, which prompted a quiet grunt coming from the marshal. 

“Nevermind then… we’ll talk business later,” he said and then looked tellingly in Din’s direction. 

“Right. Nice to see you’re still in one piece,” Fett said in his usual tone, although his words had a notable warm ring to them. He then went on to grasp the glass full of spotchka standing in front of him, which Vanth had just filled.

“You really thought I wouldn’t get by without you two?” the Mandalorian joked but at the same time these words stung him a little bit. After all, was he really  _ getting by _ ?

Fennec only scoffed in response, probably because she noticed the slight difference in Din’s tone, which sounded more exhausted now than usually. His whole hunched presence and the two-day desert smell didn’t help his case either.

“To be fair, we had to save your ass once,” Boba reminded everyone of the Imperial ambush on Tython. Proud of his remark, he smiled and took a sip of the alcohol. 

“Well, it needs saving one more time,” Din responded, “I’m looking for any information on someone. The name’s Sky-” 

No sooner had he mentioned the Jedi’s last name, than a hail of bolts thundered in the cantina. Everyone at the table jolted up immediately except for Din, who got too disoriented by the horrid screams filling the room. He came to his senses when a laser shot went right above his helmet and burned a hole in the wall in front of his eyes. 

He jumped from his seat and bounced off some bolts using his forearm guards, managing to hit and scratch the invaders’ armour a little bit. There were about five stormtroopers standing in the cantina’s entrance, shooting at everyone who dared to get up from their seat. Just as the Mandalorian started reaching for his gun, he felt someone aggressively pulling on his cape and he suddenly found himself sitting behind the bar counter.

“You’ve got to get outta here!” Cobb outshouted the blasters firing in the background. “They must have come here for you!”

“He’s right,” Boba nodded his head. “You two,” he pointed at Din and Fennec, “get out through the back door. You, Fennec, get him safely to Eisley.”

“Consider it done,” the woman replied as she put her mask on and got on her knees, ready to leave. As soon as hers and the Mandalorian’s stares met, they both nodded agreeingly. 

The sounds of the fighting were still unbearably loud when the two started slowly making their way towards the door. They walked hunched over and close to the floor so the imps wouldn’t notice them leaving but the ongoing chaos would have prevented that from happening even if they had straightened up and announced their escape.

Just as they were about to leave and run off they noticed two people guarding the back door. They were facing the cantina backwards. Fennec stopped Din with her arm and gestured something quickly. They both got on two sides of the exit with their backs to the wall and waited for a few seconds. Then at once and with great precision they knocked both troopers off their feet with a quick kick. The Mandalorian jumped on his opponent and grabbed the rifle he had just dropped on the ground. After a few solid hits in his face, he dropped lifelessly under Din.

Meanwhile Fennec was holding her rival in a chokehold. The Mandalorian rushed to help her finish him, but she suddenly managed to snap his neck. She dropped his body on the ground and looked at the man standing over her. She kneeled for a moment to catch her breath.

The blasters stopped firing inside the cantina, but the fight seemed to be far from over. Besides the clanking of gaffi sticks hitting the stormtrooper’s armour there were now glasses being thrown and crushed on the intruders’ heads. The tuskens yelled and the townspeople cursed as they were attacking the enemy, arm to arm. 

The havoc wasn’t dying down so Din and Fennec unanimously decided it was time to take off. Once again, she stopped the man just before they compromised their presence outside.

Three black shapes were heading to the cantina’s main entrance. They walked at the same speed and in one line. The night had fallen earlier and the dim light coming from the houses didn’t make it possible to make out any distinguishing features of the figures. Din could only see that they were all wearing black robes and had their hoods up. Similarly to those people he saw in his dream recently. He felt his heart rushing as he watched the mysterious arrivals make their way to the building. 

“We have to go in the same direction they came from and find their ship,” Fennec’s words made the Mandalorian focus on their mission again. 

Once the figures got close to the entrance, Din whispered, “now.”

They both sprinted out from behind the building but the sand made it hard to run as fast as they would like to. Anxious, they looked behind themselves once or twice to check if someone was following them. But fortunately no one noticed their escape so far. After a while a big, dark shape started to appear on the horizon. 

***

  
  


The uproar was declining now, as no one dared to lay a hand on the invaders anymore. Two sand people lay down motionlessly, blood leaking from their wounds and making the floor seething red. Next to them were three imps, their armour penetrated by gaffi sticks. A couple of townsfolk got shot too and now one of them, desperately grasping for air, was begging the stormtrooper to spare him. The man finished him off with one final hit of his rifle.

A scared gasp went through the crowd. But silence fell when the three figures entered the cantina and with them came the cold. No one inside could put a finger on what exactly it was, but they all felt shivers run down their spines. The tension only grew as the arrivals stood there, examining the terrified faces all around them. 

“Him,” the leader of the group finally spoke and pointed at some man whose eyes were peeking out from behind a knocked down table. His voice sounded calm and firm - but it certainly didn’t belong to an adult. 

Two stormtroopers immediately went to grab him and then dragged him by his arms. He was now kneeling before the leader and holding his arms up. He didn’t want to look up at his face, but something in his head told him to do it. The only visible thing on his face were two bright eyes staring at him dismissively. The invader didn’t say anything or move, they just fixed their eyes on the man. Suddenly, he realized his thoughts weren’t his own anymore. There was a sensation of something drilling inside his brain.

“Where’s the Mandalorian?” the intruder asked.

The man only started to breathe quicker and his hands started to shake uncontrollably. 

“I asked you a question,” he spoke again. His stoic tone still hadn’t changed, even though everyone understood that his patience would not last long. 

“I- I don’t know,” he finally answered, stumbling over every word. 

It was now when Cobb decided to take a peek at the whole scene. He didn’t see much because of the darkness, but it was enough to know that they were in a strange situation.

“What’s happening?” Boba whispered as the man sat on the floor again.

“Two stormtroopers, the rest is out. But there’s also three brats in dark robes now,” he replied.

“Brats?” the man sounded confused. 

“Yeah, brats,” Cobb whispered back, sounding as shocked as the man, “they’re all the size of 15-year-olds.”

“That doesn’t sound threatening,” Fett replied confidently.

But his confidence faded away just as quickly as it appeared. Low humming filled the air now and red light illuminated the room, reflecting on every surface. This made Boba’s heart drop but he didn’t show it in any way. 

“I’m not gonna repeat myself,” the leader spoke. 

He was now holding a fiercely red lightsaber next to the man’s neck. The light blinded him and he could feel his skin burning even though the sword wasn’t touching him. Panicking, he just continued to splutter nonsensically.

“We gotta do something, now,” Cobb whispered to Boba, now more nervously.

“You’re right,” he replied.

The bounty hunter was now coming to his senses after being immersed in a memory for a moment. He put his helmet on, then reached for his blaster and so the marshal grabbed his gun too. Boba touched the man’s chin and lifted it up a bit. He didn’t say anything for a few seconds, he just took in the view of Cobb.

“Stay close,” he said.

Cobb gave him a feisty smile. “Will do,” he replied.

As soon as both men jolted up, the two figures, until now only quietly standing at the leader’s sides, opened up their lightsabers. One of them had their other hand occupied with a small double-blade, also gleaming red. The leader looked up on the two who dared to interrupt him and with a quick swing of his hand pushed the man and the stormtroopers aside so as to make some room. He then took a step forward and straightened up.

“I heard you were looking for me,” Boba raised his voice. He talked in his usual tongue-in-cheek tone. 

The bounty hunter didn’t wait for a response before opening fire. His companion joined him but all of their shots were futile as the warriors bounced them off their weapons. The bolts started hitting everything in the cantina, but the actual targets, which prompted screams of panic in the crowd.

“Enough,” the main one muttered softly under his breath. 

He reached out and made their blasters swish through the air right into his and his companions’ hands. 

They hid them in their robes and then lowered their sabers. Before the leader could speak again, he got startled by something pulling away his weapon - in a blink of an eye Fett came into possession of it, thanks to his fibercord whip. The shock on the warrior’s face quickly changed into pure, unhinged anger. His eyes were now burning with light yellow fire.

Despite the helmet covering his face, Boba sure seemed to be satisfied with that view. “Come and get it,” he uttered.

The three immediately jumped in their direction. Cobb quickly managed to grab a pocket knife, even though he knew it wouldn’t do much good against a lightsaber. He was up against only one of the group, who was at least two heads shorter than him. The marshal jumped around the room so as to avoid all the strikes, but his rival was much quicker - they burned his shin with the tip of the saber, but it was enough to make him scream in pain. Despite that he still wasn’t giving in - he now started to grab everything on his way and throw it at the invader. They either cut in half all the chairs and tableware or used the Force to redirect them. 

Meanwhile Fett had to fight against two opponents - despite holding the lightsaber and being much bigger than them, he wasn’t doing that well. He dodged all of the leader’s strikes using his weapon but at the same time he wasn’t able to avoid the other one’s hits. Their sword made high pitched sounds as it crashed against the bounty hunter’s beskar armour. 

The marshal got himself into the corner of the room and sensed the fight was over. In a desperate act he just threw his pathetic pocket knife at the teenager. It was instantly stopped by their hand and then it slowly floated to them until they caught it. A smile appeared on their face as they made Cobb kneel down and put his hands behind his head. He took a look at his friend.

Boba’s stubbornness was slowly wearing off. He wasn’t able to avoid getting his arm cut twice by the small blade. The invaders also managed to get a few kicks in there, making the bounty hunter weak in the knees. The final strike came when the leader burned a straight line along his thigh. Fett screamed. He quickly got disarmed and pushed to the floor.

The leader pinned his chest down with his foot. Boba grunted and coughed. He put more pressure on him as he leaned down to push his helmet off and take a look at his face. It looked pretty nasty - blood was running from his nose and he was squeezing his eyes in pain. The pair of eyes fixed on it were still glowing with hostile yellow but they now looked a little bit different, as if they were searching for something. The man frowned.

“Where’s the saber?” he asked impatiently.

“I don’t have one,” Boba replied in a barely audible voice.

The guy standing on his chest looked even more confused now. He reached his hand out to touch the man’s forehead and closed his eyes as he tried penetrating his mind once more. After a few seconds he jumped away from him as if he got electrocuted.

“It’s not him…” he whispered. His companions only gave each other a disoriented look.

The situation became clear when a couple of seconds later they all heard the sound of an imperial shuttle taking off. 

The three figures immediately run out of the cantina just to see their transport getting stolen. They just stood and watched the Lambda’s engines illuminate the sand around them. 

The tallest one got their hood removed by the wind. Now one could see his face clear as day - despite looking incredibly young he seemed to be carrying too much experience. Not only because of the numerous scars on his cheeks, but also due to the tired gleam of his stare. Short black curls covered his forehead, now white as a sheet. His vexed eyebrows had little cuts in them, but the most noticeable feature about his face were his eyes - their colour could make one’s blood run cold.

And so they stood motionlessly in front of the building, looking vengefully at the night sky. 

  
  
  


***

  
  


Fennec and Din had a fairly easy trip, considering what transpired at the cantina. On the board of the Lambda there were three more stormtroopers but they didn’t put up much of a fight - the woman got them all dead with just a few shots of her rifle. Flying that shuttle was a new experience for the Mandalorian, fortunately he got the hang of it pretty quickly and they could get near Mos Eisley in no time. Neither of them wanted to risk bringing attention to themselves by landing in the hangar with that spaceship, so they made the last part on foot.

After some time spent on walking they finally got to the hangar where Din’s VCX-100 was waiting for him. Fennec looked around to check if anyone was there too but after seeing no one she took off her helmet. 

“This is where our ways part, Mandalorian,” she said.

“Where you’re off to?” Din asked. He genuinely didn’t know what she and Fett were up to on Tatooine, besides building a guild.

“The cantina, probably,” she replied and gave him a slight smile, “I’ve got some business to attend to.”

He tilted his helmet. 

“Boba’s business?”

“Don’t forget it’s mine too.”

Din nodded in response. “I hope he and Cobb are still in one piece,” he added.

“They can take care of themselves,” she noted, “you, on the other hand, better hide somewhere and do not come out. You still have some time before they get here but in a few hours Mos Eisley will be swarming with the imps.”

She was right, the Mandalorian knew it. But he didn’t have a clue where he should go - every place seemed equally bad right now. 

“You’re right,” he replied, “until we meet again, Fennec.”

“Keep yourself safe, Mando,” she said and headed to the city’s center. 

Din watched her walk away for a few seconds and then he fixed his eyes on the ground. He was alone, again. A heavy sigh left his mouth. He understood the gravity of the situation and that he needed to run. And then run again because they would not stop coming for him. But he felt so tired and resigned at that moment that a nagging thought appeared in his head - _ what’s the point?  _

Deciding to not give into pitying himself, he started making his way to the hangar’s entrance. Once he was inside, Peli noticed him from her booth. She walked out of it and gave him a welcoming smile.

“I thought you’d never get back,” she said in a kind of scolding tone, but the Mandalorian knew it was more of a caring remark. 

“I thought I wouldn’t either. There was… an incident in Mos Pelgo,” he said.

“You’re not telling me you went to that backwater village?” she raised her eyebrows and continued, “I thought you were supposed to find something on the Jedi.”

“I was trying to do that and it led me to Mos Pelgo,” he explained.

“Well, what happened there?”

“I’m not sure…” Din shrugged his shoulders, “let’s just say that a few hours from now there will be a lot of imperials in the town.”

Peli only gave him a tired look in response. All the Mandalorian did was get himself into trouble, but she guessed it wasn’t exactly his fault this time. 

After seeing her expression he continued. “I probably don’t have to tell you that you-”

“I never saw you, yeah, of course…” she reassured him. “Where will you go then?”

“No clue, to be honest…” he said. “Even if I knew it’d be better not to tell you.”

“Right,” she nodded, “well, wherever you’re going your ship will do just fine,” she pointed at his transport, now looking a little bit more clean, “I worked on the turbulence thing but I can’t promise it won’t fail again, it’s an old model. I fixed some other stuff while I was at it, you’re welcome,” she said and offered him a warm smile.

“Thank you, Peli. I hope I’ll see you again soon,” he replied and went to shake her hand.

“Well, you better. And bring that sweet child the next time,” the woman replied in her typical aunt-like manner.

Din smiled under his helmet and took one last look at his friend before he walked into the freighter. It felt like had just gotten on Tatooine a few minutes ago and now he had to run away again - it’s as if he was still living in the sewers. Always having to hide and not being able to trust anyone. Well, besides his friends. But he was abandoning them now.

Once he got on board, he sealed the door behind him and got an uneasy feeling due to how quiet the inside of his ship was. The hollowness from before he landed on this planet came back to him now that he returned to the same space. A few heavy steps got him into the cockpit and he was finally able to plop down on his seat. 

He turned around to not face the control panel and leaned forward. Hunched over, looking exhausted, his clothes and armour completely covered in dirt, he let out a worn out sigh. It was about the only thing he still had the energy to do. 

No matter how hard he tried, ideas for possible hideouts didn’t pop up in his head. Every planet seemed to be a too obvious choice if he considered that the imps might know a lot about his adventures over the past few months. Nevarro seemed to be compromised too - but what if he managed to get on it unnoticed and just take a few jobs from Karga? As far as Din was concerned, the Empire’s leftovers didn’t know he was now flying this particular freighter. And just a quick visit would keep him occupied for weeks, while he would track criminals in the most random systems. It was decided where he would go next then.

But the feeling of pointlessness was still filling him from head to toe. What if they were already waiting for him on Nevarro? Even if they weren’t, they would still be following him for probably the rest of his life. It would be a never-ending game of cat and mouse, not unless the Empire would be defeated once and for all. And Din knew too well that it wasn’t going to happen. So what was the point?

The Mandalorian reached into one of the cabinets and grabbed a middle-sized bottle of blue liquid that wasn’t covered in dust like he expected it to be. It really did seem like he spent a few seconds on Tatooine and was back to his usual running away routine. 

As a matter of fact, he got his hands on the bottle of spotchka pretty much mindlessly and wasn’t really sure if he wanted to drink. He never used to think of himself as the type to give up and give in - but what if it was the right thing to do? Grogu wasn’t with him anymore, he was somewhere safe. Din didn’t have to hide him so why would he hide at all?

Suddenly he sobered up and remembered the saber attached to his belt, which felt as if it was weighing him down now. He had to meet up with Bo-Katan. After all he made her a promise - and he never breaks his promises. So there is his one goal. Visiting her after some time spent on catching bounties seemed to be a good plan.  _ I just need to get rid of it _ , he thought, _ then I won’t have to flee. _

When he was putting the bottle away, something dropping to the floor roused his attention. He looked between his feet to see a small, silver ball. He frowned at this sight - he was confused as to how it managed not to fall out of his pocket earlier in the desert. He leaned forward to grab it. 

He played with the ball for a moment but then it hit him - a sudden wave of sadness, a feeling so intense it reminded him of the farm. It washed over him, once again making him completely hopeless. 

Small drops of water started forming at the edge of his helmet. They fell one by one on his leather gloves.

“Mandalorian,” a voice materialized out of thin air. 

It startled Din so much he straightened up in his seat and looked around him, incredibly confused. No one was there with him, but he was sure he heard the voice, as clear as day. He quickly connected the two dots - it must have been the Force. The same as Ahsoka spoke with Grogu without opening her mouth, someone was trying to connect with him. Not just someone, he recognized the calm tone of their voice instantly.

He still felt a lump in his throat so he sniffled and coughed. “Mister Jedi?” he finally replied. He realized how ridiculous it sounded, but he also didn’t feel like disrespecting someone who took down tens of Dark Troopers like it was nothing.

He heard a soft chuckle in response. “Turn around, Mandalorian,” he spoke again.

As soon as Din swiveled in his chair, he understood what had happened. A small, blue hologram was being projected by his control panel.  _ So it wasn’t the Force, _ he thought. He could feel his cheeks burning and so he was glad he still had his helmet on.

The man looked a little bit different to what the Mandalorian remembered from Gideon’s ship. He was now wearing a set of light clothes, with no cape. Din noticed his lightsaber attached to his belt. His whole posture didn’t look as threatening as before - it was due to the beige tank top that showed off his arms. The hologram was pretty distorted, but one could also see that his hair was in disorder and some strands came over his eyes, but the Jedi didn’t seem to be bothered by it. The smile he was offering made Din feel a sudden itch, pleasurable, yet confusing. 

“I’m contacting you due to an unusual disturbance in the Force I have recently detected,” the Knight explained, now in a more serious tone.

_ A disturbance in the Force?  _ It didn’t sound convincing to Din, who thought that this mystical power worked differently. But he didn’t dare to question the man’s words.

“I’m afraid I can’t say much more than that, reading the future isn’t always completely accurate,” he continued, “but what I do know is that right now you are not safe, Mandalorian.”

Din felt a need to scoff at these words, considering what he had just gone through, but he withheld himself, so as to not come off as rude.

“I think I know what you might have seen,” Din said. He wanted to tell the Jedi about the attack at Mos Pelgo’s cantina, but before he could open his mouth again, the man started speaking.

“It’s better not to discuss it right now,” he said, “I want you to come here so we can talk about it without any risk. And mainly because you will be safe here.”

Someone offering a safe haven to the Mandalorian just when he desperately needed one sounded almost too good - and so the man started having second thoughts about the Jedi’s suggestion. Even though he trusted the Knight with his son, he wasn’t sure he wouldn’t be walking into a trap. If not an imperial one, someone else surely wanted to take the darksaber from him - of that he was certain. 

But he suddenly remembered what he was holding in his hand. He looked down at it and then tightened the grip on the metal ball. He realized that meeting with the Knight meant seeing his Kid - finally, after all this time. That thought completely changed Din’s outlook on the whole idea. Maybe a chance of being reunited with him was worthy of possibly getting caught?

He once again looked up at the Jedi’s friendly smile. He couldn’t find an ounce of falsehood in it even if he tried hard. 

“I will come to you,” he said.

The Knight nodded in response. “I will send you the direct coordinates. Just remember to wipe all memory of my messages from the computer,” he said and the hologram disappeared.

Din sat motionlessly for a couple of seconds, trying to take it all in.

_ I’m gonna see my son _ , he thought. He immediately got around to turning the engines on and setting the course.


End file.
